The Day After
1983 Directed by Nicholas Meyer
Synopsis
The film portrays a fictional nuclear war between NATO forces and the Warsaw Pact that rapidly escalates into a full scale exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union, focusing on the residents of Lawrence, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, as well as several family farms situated next to nearby nuclear missile silos.
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I was probably 10 when I saw this movie. It scared the shit out of me.
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Great movie, especially considering it was mad for TV. Super bleak and depressing however. Refrain from any situations that could lead to self-inflicted gunshot wounds, asphyxiation, over-dosing, or hanging for at least 2 days after watching.
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Gripping and devastating account of the lead up to and the consequences of an all-out nuclear war. The human stories and accurate portryals of nuclear effects lend a terrifying tragedy to this cautionary warning against nuclear armageddon.
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Reagan-era nuclear nightmare still packs a punch, with haunting imagery, yukky melted-face makeup and pretty impressive visual effects for a TV production. Some stock footage still manages to sneak in there, but that is to be expected as I suppose the budget didn’t stretch to making a full size launchable MX missile and silo. Story follows various characters who cross paths while trying to survive in the aftermath of Russkie missile strike – USAF peon, university student and family-man doctor. Rural family toughing it out in their basement bomb shelter has it worst as they also have high-strung teenage daughter’s whining to contend with. As if a dead dog and blinded son wasn’t bad enough. When an irradiated Steve Guttenberg…
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I chose this as my favorite TV movie for a 30 day movie challenge that I am doing. I remember being in elementary school when this came out and I recall the large amount of discussion it brought up. It deals with the sobering fact of the level of devastation that would happen to humans if a nuclear war ever happened. It even says at the end that it would be worse than how they present it in this movie and it is pretty devastating in this movie. It really is a movie that as many people in the world that can, should see. Obviously many people know a Nuclear War would be devastating but this movie gives a depiction of how it would affect real people in literally middle America as it is set in Lawrence, Kansas. The pace of the movie is very slow but the pictures and events are very hard to look away from. Highly recommended.
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Was happy to find this online, recalling how (unlike my friends at school) I was forbidden to watch this on TV when it aired in 1983. (My parents likely guessed correctly that their neurotic nine year-old wouldn't do so well witnessing a nuclear apocalypse.) The film, in my mind, holds up well, despite being nearly thirty years old now, and removed from the paranoia of the Cold War's height. Great 80s cast (Jason Robards, JoBeth Williams) and some really haunting images of the effects of nuclear fallout are the high points. At its worst, it plays out like the made-for-TV venture that it is, with some maudlin dialogue and mawkish writing.
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Although the special effects are a little out of date this film truly scared me. The everyday routine of life just wiped out makes it truly chilling. When the initial strike happens and the multiple mushroom clouds go up you can only think what would I do? Then seeing the sorrowful after effects you can only ask why? And would it be worth surviving the blast. Watch this and it will have you searching your soul thinking about it. A true hidden gem
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I was probably 10 when I saw this movie. It scared the shit out of me.